{"id":31876,"date":"2022-07-23T11:06:06","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T11:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/?p=31876"},"modified":"2022-07-23T11:06:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T11:06:06","slug":"does-tiktok-steal-your-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/does-tiktok-steal-your-information","title":{"rendered":"Does TikTok Steal Your Information?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_43 counter-flat ez-toc-counter ez-toc-light-blue ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a1fe7275eb89\" class=\"cssicon\"><span style=\"display: flex;align-items: center;width: 35px;height: 30px;justify-content: center;direction:ltr;\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/label><label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a1fe7275eb89\"  class=\"cssiconcheckbox\">1<\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a1fe7275eb89\" ><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/does-tiktok-steal-your-information\/#Does_TikTok_Steal_Your_Information\" title=\"Does TikTok Steal Your Information?\">Does TikTok Steal Your Information?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/does-tiktok-steal-your-information\/#TikTok_is_a_video-sharing_platform\" title=\"TikTok is a video-sharing platform\">TikTok is a video-sharing platform<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/does-tiktok-steal-your-information\/#It_collects_information_from_users_devices\" title=\"It collects information from users&#8217; devices\">It collects information from users&#8217; devices<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/does-tiktok-steal-your-information\/#It_doesnt_listen_to_conversations\" title=\"It doesn&#8217;t listen to conversations\">It doesn&#8217;t listen to conversations<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/does-tiktok-steal-your-information\/#It_sends_that_information_to_China\" title=\"It sends that information to China\">It sends that information to China<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_TikTok_Steal_Your_Information\"><\/span>Does TikTok Steal Your Information?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"max-width:31% height:auto; max-height:249px; margin:0px 10px; width:auto;\" align=\"right\" alt=\"Does TikTok steal your information\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/FPuG8eP.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p>This article will look at the data that TikTok collects on users. While it doesn&#8217;t listen to conversations, it collects content from users. This information can come back to haunt teenagers later. It&#8217;s also unclear whether the data is stored in China or not. Hopefully, this article will help you make an informed decision about using TikTok. In the meantime, stay safe and enjoy this popular video-sharing app!<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"TikTok_is_a_video-sharing_platform\"><\/span>TikTok is a video-sharing platform<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The most popular short video-sharing app in China, TikTok, has gained worldwide popularity. Developed in China, the app resembles a greatest hits album. It evolved alongside the American tech industry. But in the US, where the app is banned, many users have no idea of the privacy issues that come with it. The truth is that TikTok has several ways to steal your information.<\/p>\n<p>One way to protect yourself from a video-sharing platform is to learn about how TikTok works and how it can potentially steal your information. It has a &#8220;For You&#8221; page that serves an endless stream of videos by other users and gets smarter with time. This video-sharing app caters to people who have short attention spans, and is becoming a marketing powerhouse, helping to create viral songs, stars, and trends.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"It_collects_information_from_users_devices\"><\/span>It collects information from users&#8217; devices<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The video sharing application TikTok is a prime example of a platform that uses a user&#8217;s device to collect information. The company is known to collect information about what users watch, how long they stay on it, and what they privately message their friends. They also gather data such as a person&#8217;s country, Internet address, type of device, age, and phone number. All this information is used to build a profile of a user to better target advertisements and understand their behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the concerns over data collection, TikTok is still working to secure the company&#8217;s privacy policies and practices. It has started redirecting pipes to try to prevent the influx of &#8220;protected&#8221; data to China. This internal effort is known as Project Texas and was initiated in response to the recent scandals. According to the company, Chinese staff members have been gaining access to information from users in the US as part of Project Texas.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"It_doesnt_listen_to_conversations\"><\/span>It doesn&#8217;t listen to conversations<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While the TikTok app doesn&#8217;t listen to conversations, it does track a user&#8217;s web browsing activity and audio content. This is a controversial data collection practice, as the company is also known to track a user&#8217;s GPS location and information about other apps that a user might be using. However, it doesn&#8217;t appear to have an immediate impact on a user&#8217;s experience.<\/p>\n<p>In order to find out whether TikTok is listening to conversations, a user had to use its hearing feature. This setting turns an iPhone into a live listening device. However, in a video posted on the social networking website, a TikTok user explained how he or she was able to set up the hearing feature to record 43 seconds of audio after activation. Although this is an incredibly convenient feature, many users are still concerned that the service is snooping on their conversations.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok&#8217;s filter bubble is not all that surprising, but many users are concerned that it might be exclusionary. They&#8217;re also concerned that the app&#8217;s filters will exclude videos with politically controversial themes, as well as content by queer and Black Lives Matter protesters. TikTok&#8217;s blog post addressing this issue explains the algorithm behind its recommendation feed and offers tips for customizing it to suit a user&#8217;s needs.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"It_sends_that_information_to_China\"><\/span>It sends that information to China<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The Chinese government may be getting access to the personal information of American users through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The two companies, which operate the world&#8217;s largest app stores, are currently facing a federal investigation over whether they are sending personal information to the Chinese government. TikTok&#8217;s security team told Congress last fall that their data is under U.S. control, but BuzzFeed obtained audio of internal meetings that revealed that TikTok&#8217;s Chinese-based engineers were accessing nonpublic U.S. user data between September 2021 and January 2022.<\/p>\n<p>While the United States and China may be at odds over whether Chinese companies should be storing private information, the broader question is: Should these companies do so? The answer depends on &#8220;who you are.&#8221; Critics of Chinese government policies and dissidents living abroad may be concerned about their personal cyber security. TikTok says that it does not send this information to China and that any request would require it to go through a mutual legal assistance treaty.<\/p>\n<p> <iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cMeyMC7-R_w\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"485\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" height=\"271\" style=\"margin:0px auto; display: block;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does TikTok Steal Your Information? This article will look at the data that TikTok collects on users. While it doesn&#8217;t listen to conversations, it collects content from users. This information can come back to haunt teenagers later. It&#8217;s also unclear whether the data is stored in China or not. Hopefully, this article will help you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[321],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v21.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Does TikTok Steal Your Information? - Zeru<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zeru.com\/blog\/does-tiktok-steal-your-information\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does TikTok Steal Your Information?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Does TikTok Steal Your Information? 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